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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

New Items up for Sale on ebay

I hope the hunt for Ethel the wandering witch is going well. She never did come back and I have no idea where she is.

I mention Ethel for two reasons, the first reason is so that you will keep hunting for her (do tell your friends) and ultimately find her and the second reason is to thank her. I was so busy when she came by that I didn't tell her that she or rather the game of trying to find her was how the "Portrait Rattles" came about. I had forgotten all about the "The Hunt for you know who" and I needed a prize to donate. I had one day to make, photograph, and submit my donation! I didn't have anything! I was looking in a box of small cylinders that I have collected over the years and found 11 small rings of cardboard 2 1/2" across and 1/4" deep that had something such as ribbon wrapped around them. They have been there for quite a while so I don't know what they were used for. I decided to make a miniature party rattle. Well I did and the rest is, as they say, history.

I have listed six on ebay as well as two candy container ornaments. For those of you that are observant you may have noticed that there are 7 in the picture. A friend saw them and bought "Jack and the Giant Floral Bombshell". Hallowe'en in British Columbia, Canada is the only time that fireworks are available for sale. The powers that be are trying to stop the practice unfortunately but the reasons are valid I suppose.
The term "Portrait Rattle" came about as I was making them. I remembered about the itinerant artists that would travel about and paint portraits for people. I also thought about the European tradition of painting miniature portraits on thin sheets of ivory. These portraits are truly beautiful. That is how the idea of a miniature party rattle depicting a favourite event from one of my clients came about. Some of the rattles are made for my clients as gifts to a friend or relative. The rattle will then depict that person as my client sees them. I make two of the rattles one for the client and one to sell.There are two candy container/ornaments for sale as well. The one at the bottom of the picture is called "The Persian Scribe". The other one is called "Eager Anticipation". It looks like he is wearing a hula skirt but he isn't. That is the bottom half of the tassel he is resting on. Next time I will be more careful when take the picture!Just click here and you can go directly to my ebay sales page.

The images and writing on this blog belong to me unless I have given credit to the original creator. If you would like to use any part of my blog please credit me - Len Bentham/Happy Holidays with a link back to this blog. Let me know if you use anything from my blog, I'd love to read it! I can be contacted at lenbenny@shaw.ca. Thanks a lot, Len Bentham.